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Posts 1208
Registered 1-14-2004 Location Monroe, LA Member Is Offline
Mood: Weird
posted on 5-4-2017 at 05:46 AM
My only real issue with Mahal is that I find the 'ethnic heel' trappings irritating - the Maharaja name (and god, I'm already tired
of hearing JBL say it), the "you only hate me cause I'm Indian" schtick. Just be an asshole, I don't care where you're from. I am
enjoying the Singh brothers as his tiny minions - they're very pestery.
How did the Smackdown women's division become the best-booked thing in WWE? Clear motivations, fun swerves, making Naomi look strong. I love
that they're not just outright turning Charlotte and letting her remain the Queen and just allied with the others out of convenience - it can
make a real face turn mean more later and leave them the option of turning her fully heel again once the Welcoming Committee is disposed of at
last.
And yeah, can't agree more about the Breezango stuff. Just fantastic. And I'll fully admit I was wrong about Tyler Breeze - I didn't
get it when he first got the call-up but I love the guy now.
"It is an impressively arrogant move to conclude that just because you don't like something, it is empirically not good. I don't like
Chinese food, but I don't write articles trying to prove it doesn't exist." - Tina Fey
SaiyaJinDX
And I am AWESOME
Posts 216
Registered 11-13-2005 Member Is Offline
Mood: Chillin
posted on 5-4-2017 at 06:42 PM
Someone made the point I was going to about Mahal- his rise basically reminds me of JBL. And I remember being really annoyed when that push first
happened too. He was a mid-carder for so long, I just couldn't look at him as an all-of-a-sudden main event threat after jobbing out for so
long. And especially going after Eddie Guerrero, who most people loved. I wound up growing to really appreciate the JBL character afterwards, but I
just didn't like how it came out of nowhere.
It goes back to a point I've made MANY times in convos I've had about wrestling with a variety of people- WWE has no idea how to take care
of their mid-carders. It seems like they can only have one "superman" at a time (well now two- one for each show- Reigns and Cena respectively).
Everyone else is a jobber or 50/50 at best.
50/50 booking is garbage and LAZY. I like the concept of anyone can win at any time, but at the same time it needs to be executed better. It IS
possible to protect more than one superstar at a time.
They're doing it now with Jinder. But they already hot-shotted him to the top. I would have preferred, that he starts putting together a few
wins over the last month or so, so it would seem like he had some kind of honest chance of winning that multi-man #1 Contender's match. Rather
than just "shocking" everyone with the win and now putting a bunch of random wins under his belt against guys he shouldn't be beating based on
all previous experience with him.
I know the WWE keeps telling us that wins and losses don't matter, but I call BS on that to a degree. Specific numbers might not, but fans are
trained based on how a wrestler is portrayed or treated to figure if a guy has a chance or not. That's partly why Ziggler lost a lot of his
momentum. They'd put him in these high profile matches but after awhile you just KNEW he was going to lose. Same with a guy like Zack Ryder.
People liked him and wanted to get behind him, but if they keep jobbing him out on TV, of course people are eventually lose interest. Who wants to
back a loser? If there is a "lovable loser" story going, maybe, but there wasn't with those two (and others). Just losing... (and I'm
afraid this is going to happen to Zayn too, if it hasn't fully happened already).
The only reason I'm not more upset about this, is that it's against Orton, who I still can barely tolerate and I think has no business
with the world title anymore. So I'm looking for him to lose it to almost anyone. And we've got a show full of Styles, Nakamura,
Dillenger, Owens, etc who can legitimately be inserted into the main event picture (but trust me, I'll be annoyed if Jinder starts going over on
all those guys too, since he's not on any of their levels).
Count Zero
The Rowdy One
Posts 2064
Registered 1-29-2013 Location Canada East Member Is Offline
Mood: Heat Vacuum
posted on 5-4-2017 at 08:50 PM
quote:Originally posted by GodEatGod
My only real issue with Mahal is that I find the 'ethnic heel' trappings irritating - the Maharaja name (and god, I'm already tired
of hearing JBL say it), the "you only hate me cause I'm Indian" schtick. Just be an asshole, I don't care where you're from. I am
enjoying the Singh brothers as his tiny minions - they're very pestery.
Even though I like Jinder, I have to agree with the "ethnic
heel trope" dislike. I've long been annoyed by the WWE tendency to make all heels "chickenshit" (Miz) or "evil foreigner" (Rusev/Jinder).
I think I'm just looking past that to the "hey, it's a new dude in an unexpected position" factor.
Because you're REALLY REALLY right. They get caught up in making bad guys unlikable by resorting to the same cliches they used in the 70s, 60s,
50s, and so on. We've had lots of other bad-guy models (in films, tv series, books, comic books), but the WWE usually refuses to use them
because ... Fear that it becomes "cool heel" maybe?
I wish they'd put Jinder in the "I'm doing what I think is RIGHT, even though everybody else thinks it's wrong" category, or
pretty much anything other than "Look! I have an EEEEEVIL turban!".
janerd75
The Great One
Posts 3539
Registered 1-28-2013 Member Is Offline
Mood: Whatever the fuck
posted on 5-4-2017 at 09:45 PM
Some thoughts on Jinder's push from Jim Ross, especially regarding the Evil Foreign Heel Gimmick. In short, USA! USA! USA!
...Bippity Boo and Skibbity Bop or whatever the fuck. - punkerhardcornette
BRAY WYATT'S SPOOKY DOOKY VARIETY HOUR - Illy P.
I expect a company that's basically a cluster of jock shitheads to act like a place that's run by a cluster of jock shitheads. - P. Foot,
Esq.
